A New Era Begins

Dean Ross B. Corotis

As the College begins its second century of excellence, I am privileged to have been named dean. I look forward to carrying on the traditions established by my predecessors, as well as charting new and exciting challenges. The exceptional quality and devotion of our faculty, students, alumni/ae, and friends has prepared the way for continued success. I look forward to further strengthening the partnerships necessary to assure that we advance the College's mission.

I wanted in my first dean's message to give you some sense of my vision for engineering education and research.

I begin with the basic premise that it is the role of a research university to create and disseminate knowledge. An engineering college in such a context must have faculty who are engaged in teaching, research, and professional service.

Dramatic changes will be occurring over the next 10 years in higher education, especially in engineering education. The increasingly international aspects of engineering must be recognized, along with the need for graduate education, and lifelong learning. Attraction of a diverse population into our field is crucial. The educational paradigm borrowed from the sciences has served us well for the past 40 years, but this has led to a relatively narrow focus on what I call "prototype design." I believe we must broaden engineering education, particularly at the undergraduate level, in two very different aspects.

Regarding the technological aspect of the undergraduate education we offer, we must emphasize the whole process of engineering design, as defined by social need and context, conceptual design, manufacturability, marketing and distribution, installation, maintenance, and even decommissioning. We must also include awareness of and appreciation for environmental impact, safety, and team management. We must bring design process into all levels of the undergraduate curriculum. The College's Integrated Teaching Laboratory (ITL) will place us in a position of national leadership in this area and was a significant factor in my decision to come to the University of Colorado.

We must also broaden the general education of our students; engineers must not only be the problem solvers for our increasingly technological society but must the problem definers and the decision makers. To prepare our students for leadership roles, we must offer a truly fine and coordinated liberal education. Our Herbst Program of Humanities for Engineers is another example of an area in which we are defining the way for others.

Engineering research, a concomitant part of the role of the research university, will also change. The role of the single investigator will continue to be important, but joint and interdisciplinary research, and research centers, will grow in importance as funding models change. The Congressional demand for social accountability will lead to even more emphasis on focused or "strategic" research.

While private support has always played a crucial part in this College's margin of excellence, budgetary realities and competing pressures for tax dollars are requiring us to rely even more heavily on our individual and corporate friends. Together, we can assure the College's future as one of the great engineering colleges of the world. I hope and trust that I can count on you, as did Dick Seebass, to invest with us in the College's promising future.

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